While you might think of things like bath towels and kitchen appliances when you hear the words “wedding registry,” you’d be remiss to think you’re only relegated to household items when you tie the knot.
Just ask Colorado-based couple Ann Bethune and Eric Wilberg. While envisioning their future home together, they knew they wanted one thing more than anything—and that was to adopt a child following their 2018 wedding. So they decided to dedicate their registry—via The Knot Newlywed Fund—to help make that dream a reality.
Their Backstory
It’s fitting that Ann and Eric met at a charity fundraiser for Children’s Hospital Colorado, Ann’s place of work as a neonatal intensive care nurse. Eric was working in the same industry as a health care management consultant.
“We were each there with our own group of friends but started talking casually, and soon separated ourselves and talked for several hours,” Eric says. “We realized we had a great connection and each of us had all the qualities the other person was looking for.”
The relationship took off from there, and the couple realized—and discussed at length—that they shared a vision of what their future families would look like. More specifically, they knew they were on the same page about adoption, thanks to their respective work in the health care industry combined with various volunteer activities they both participated in.
“Both of us see the value of providing stable and supportive homes to children,” Eric says. In fact, Ann’s known since she was a teenager that she wanted to adopt. This isn’t to say that the couple doesn’t want to have biological children—they say they plan to try, when the time is right—but they’re certain they want to grow their family via adoption.
“It’s a way we’ll be able to share the love [the two of us] and our extended families have to give with just a few more people in the world,” Eric says.
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Their “Registory”
Since Ann and Eric have both talked at length with their loved ones regarding their plans for the future, it was an easy decision to put their adoption fund on their wedding website. In fact, many of their family and friends have either adopted or fostered children—and have been incredibly supportive of their registry plans.
While setting up their wedding website on TheKnot.com, they discovered The Knot Newlywed Fund, which gave them the flexibility to register for alternative gifts and tell the story of what they’re planning to do with the money.
“As we’re both more than a decade into our professional careers and in our thirties, we already had a lot of ‘things’ that are part of traditional registries,” Eric says. “We wanted to have an option to donate toward something meaningful for our future family [instead].”
For reference, the total cost of adopting a child in the US can run up to $40,000 on average, according to AmericanAdoptions.com.
Remember: There’s always a way to make your registry totally tailored to the vision you have for your future together, just like Ann and Eric did—whether you picture a kitchen with a juicer and stand mixer, a house full of happy children or all of the above.
